Special Service and Features
IIT Madras Pravartak Foundation-led Consortium to develop Technologies for Development & Commercialization of Space and Deep Space
A joint initiative with 5 start-ups, ‘Indian Space Technologies and Applications Design Bureau’ will develop an end-to-end Atmanirbhar ecosystem for technologies like rapid launch capability and 6G
Indian Institute of Technology Madras Pravartak Technologies Foundation is going to collaborate with five start-ups to develop technologies for Ecosystem Development and Commercialization of Space and Deep Space. The consortium is called ‘Indian Space Technologies and Applications Design Bureau’  and will develop next-generation applications.
The consortium will focus on building an end-to-end Atmanirbhar ecosystem for space technologies from on-demand access to data and space including rapid launch capability, satellite design and assembly, sensors, future generation communication such as 6G, security of satellites, Ground Stations, data processing, assimilation for communication and geo spatial application sectors.
Speaking about this consortium, Prof. Satya Chakravarthy, Head, I-STAC.DB, and Faculty, Department of Aerospace Engineering, IIT Madras, said, “In today’s world, collaboration is the mantra. It is not possible for any one company to do all that is required for the end customer of space applications. This consortium thus naturally gravitates all such key stakeholders.”
The MoU for this path-breaking initiative was signed recently. I-STAC.DB is inviting companies in space and allied domains to join this effort. Further details can be obtained by visiting https://pravartak.org.in/istac-db
The founding members of I-STAC.DB include:
1. IIT Madras Pravartak Technologies Foundation, a Section 8 company funded by Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, under its National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber Physical Systems and hosted by IIT Madras.
2. Dron Vayu Pvt Ltd
3. Agnikul Cosmos Pvt Ltd
4. GalaxEye Space Solutions Pvt Ltd
5. Mindgrove Technologies Pvt Ltd
6. Resileo Labs LLP
Sharing his thoughts on the collaboration, Dr. M. J. ShankarRaman, Chief Executive Officer, IIT Madras Pravartak Technologies Foundation, said, “IIT-M Pravartak is extremely thrilled to have dynamic and young entrepreneurs to synergize their thoughts and efforts towards India based space ecosystem through this platform. It is their expression of their deep commitment and conviction that made this happen.”
The Key Outcomes and impact envisaged from I-STAC.DB in the medium and long terms include:
Design of launch vehicles and spacecraft for additive manufacturing
Development of mobile launch platforms on land, air, and sea
Trusted, reliable and quickly repeatable satellite launch
Precision navigation and ground station infrastructure
Shakti processor based satellite, ground station, SDR, platforms
Hyperspectral vision, photogrammetry and synthetic aperture radar sensors, sensor fusion, onboarding processing based on edge computing and deep learning in space
Earth observation remote sensing, 5G/6G/7G communication, inter-satellite communication within constellations, and other satellite applications such as data storage and management, etc.
Space debris management
Satellite cyber-physical security and anti-satellite countermeasures
Capability building and Space-data Sciences
The five startups, founded by young entrepreneurs, are keen to contribute to the Nation’s efforts in space technologies.
Sharing his thoughts, Mr. Manish Kukreti, Founder and Managing Director, Dron Vayu Pvt. Ltd said, said, “When we at Dron Vayu approached IIT-M PTF to seek advanced technical expertise and guidance to strengthen our endeavor to deliver a complete Eco-system of Space Program based in India, the seed idea of this consortium germinated. Since then we have been raring to be part of this consortium. This is perfectly in line with our deep commitment to provide “Best-in-Class Eco-System in Space” at most affordable costs for all our clients.”
Representing Agnikul Cosmos, Mr. Moin SPM, Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer, Agnikul Cosmos, said, “It is an honour to be part of this consortium. We are elated to be complementing our nation’s space program to provide flexible launch services & thereby contribute towards the vision of providing on-demand access to space.”
Mr. Suyash Singh, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, GalaxEye Space, said, “Satellites serve applications and required to be launched, maintained by several ecosystem players. Lot of knowledge sharing happens within the ecosystem which helps us accelerate the development and thus this wonderful initiative will help us build satellites of tomorrow in India and contributing towards the vision of Digital Economy through Space.”
Mr. T.R. Shashwath, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Mindgrove Technologies Pvt. Ltd. said, “Precision electronics and communication systems are key to connecting the dots between Space and Earth. We are happy to share our expertise in building power aware and energy efficient multi-sensor packages and versatile communication systems in order to achieve the goals set out in the MoU.”
Mr. PichumaniNagarajan of Resileo Lab LLP said, “Data is the biggest asset. We will bring in best of our knowledge, experience and expertise to perform meaningful assimilation of acquired data from space and its analysis.”
Highlighting the importance of such initiatives for the country, Prof. V. Kamakoti, Faculty In-Charge, IIT Madras Pravartak Technologies Foundation, and Member, National Security Advisory Board, Government of India, said, “Time has come to pool the talent available in our country to synergise and deliver a complete end to end eco system for space and allied technologies”. He added saying that, “Indian Space Technocrats are established space technology Gurus, and this consortium is a Guru Kul, a premium knowledge centre for India and the world to tap.”
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ABOUT THE FOUNDING MEMBERS OF I-STAC.DB:
IIT Madras Pravartak Technologies Foundation is a section 08 company funded by Department of Science and Technology under its National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber Physical Systems and hosted by IIT Madras. It is engaged in conducting advanced research in various fields of technologies and participating in global standardization of the technologies in collaboration with key stakeholders in the market across industry and academia.
Dron Vayu is engaged to establish the complete Eco-system of Space Program based in India consisting of Sea Launch platform with Own Light Rocket. Dron Vayu provides Payload delivery to LEO and MEO orbit at most affordable cost globally. Dron Vayu provides payload from 700 Kg to 1.4 Tonne at LEO Orbit  as phase-1 of program. Integration of payloads with Launch Vehicle and Platform while ensuring Data Analysis deliverables is part of business development program.
AgniKul plans to design, develop and test hardware  and software that enable rapid sub-orbital, orbital and deep space launches of lightweight and heavy payloads/satellites; to engineer technology for rockets that can be launched from ground, air  or sea  across different launch locations; that would be constructed with the aim of designing affordable launch vehicles and reducing launch wait times.
GalaxEye is working on building an advanced constellation of Earth Observation Satellites in Space, providing “The Most Meaningful Dataset” using advanced sensors. This would enable businesses and governments to make efficient decisions based on data obtained from a high-resolution dataset with high frequency of coverage. GalaxEye envisions developing technologies that work in space, monitoring Earth and outer space as well, while also accelerating the growth of space infrastructure enabling multi-planetary evolution.
Mindgrove is building advanced Data Acquisition Systems, Sensor Packages, Edge Compute systems, Software-Defined Radio , LIDAR and Radar systems. The vision of Mindgrove is to create these Radar, Imaging and Radio sensor packages for power-constrained platforms such as small satellites, UAVs and ROVs, without sacrificing versatility or capability. These will also be deployed for base stations and control stations for the same. The first product being developed by Mindgrove is a Ground Penetrating Radar based on Software Defined Radios.
Resileo provides data analytics solutions to handle peta-bytes of data using open source big-data stores, visualization tools and prediction models using machine learning and artificial intelligence techniques. Resileo Labs helps to optimize the application performance when thousands to millions of hits happen concurrently on the application. Resileo Labs has been helping many Government Departments to monitor their production hardware and software performance to pre-empt application downtime and to optimize resource utilization, on a continuous basis.
ABOUT IIT MADRAS
Indian Institute of Technology Madras  was established in 1959 by the Government of India as an ‘Institute of National Importance.’ The activities of the Institute in various fields of Science and Technology are carried out in 16 academic departments and several advanced interdisciplinary research academic centres. The Institute offers undergraduate and postgraduate programmes leading to B.Tech., M.Sc., M.B.A., M.Tech., M.S., and Ph.D., degrees in a variety of specialisations. IITM is a residential institute with more than 600 faculty and 9,500 students. Students from 18 countries are enrolled here. IITM fosters an active entrepreneurial culture with strong curricular support and through the IITM Incubation Cell.
IITM has been ranked No.1 in the ‘Overall’Categoryfor the third consecutive year in India Ranking 2021released by National Institutional Ranking Framework, Ministry of Education, Govt. of India. The Institute has also been ranked No.1 in the ‘Engineering Institutions’ category in the same Rankings for six consecutive years – from 2016 to 2021. It was also adjudged as the ‘Top innovative Institution’ in the country in Atal Ranking of Institutions on Innovation Achievements  in 2019 and 2020. ARIIA Ranking was launched by the Innovation Cell of Ministry of Education.